Game Review - Angry Birds

Angry Birds

Developers: Rovio Entertainment

Genre: Puzzle

Platforms: iOS, Mac, Mac OS X, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry Tablet OS, Blackberry 10, Facebook, Playstation Store, Google Plus, Google Chrome, WebGL, HP webOS, Samsung Smart TV, Maemo, MeeGo, Symbian^3, Series 40, Bada, Roku

I think there is something we can all agree on here. Whenever you think of app games one of the first games to pop into your head is Angry Birds. A good amount of people would all agree that this game, and its rapidly expanding franchise, has become the face of app games, much like Mario is for Nintendo. Therefore it would be somewhat foolish not to look at this game when an app game is what you're trying to create, so in this review I'm going to cover the original Angry Birds, where it all began for this globally successful franchise. One look at it and it becomes clear that the game takes a turn for the cartoony. The environments and characters look like they were originally made as doodles and then copied and pasted onto the game's template. In short the graphics are very basic, but the game makes up for this by experimenting with the game objects and manipulating them in new and interesting ways and forms. The cartoony graphics also give the game a more fun look, and the style makes the objects placed into the game clearly prominent and identifiable.

In terms of gameplay itself you play as a group of cartoony looking, plump, limbless and (as the game title suggests) very annoyed looking birds, trying to bring down a group of cartoony looking, plump, limbless green hogs. The aim of the game remains constant throughout the levels. You control an enormous slingshot, where the birds turn themselves into your ammunition. The goal is to bring down a structure, made of various breakable objects, to take out the pigs seeking shelter inside. Upon taking damage both the birds and pigs accumulate various bumps and bruises before finally poofing out of existence in a puff of feathers, or in the pig's case a decent amount of points. Your ammunition is however limited to about 3 to 6 shots so the game encourages tactical use of the shots to reach the pigs and complete the levels.

Sounds simple from the front, and it is at the start of the game. Once you get into the game and manage to clear a few levels however, the structures become more ingenuitive in their construction and can't simply be brought down by any regular shot. Different varieties of birds, easily recognisable by their different colours, are also added into the game which have varying effects ranging from dropping explosive eggs, to splitting into smaller birds and battering the structure. The game requires you to be strategic about how to use the different birds and where to aim on the structure to achieve the maximum possible damage. In the later levels, tilting the birds trajectory ever so slightly can make the biggest difference in the effectiveness of the shot.

The game's layout is similar to Candy Crush in that it uses levels rather than a single infinite stage. It also utilizes a scoring and rating system, having points being accumulated for destroy pieces of the structure, taking out the pigs themselves, which are required for level completion, and also how many birds haven't been used after all of the pigs are exterminated. Depending on how well you do, you get awarded up to 3 gold stars on each level, as well as a very happy looking bird appearing beside it to show the level's completion. Unlike many popular app games however Angry Birds doesn't have a built in leaderboard system, or a means to directly compare your high score with others in your social circle. Instead there is an online leaderboard where total scores within each game can be submitted onto a single league. This enables the chance to aim for high scores among the global rankings for the game.

Angry Birds is also not without its additional content. If you're having trouble on a particular level you have the opportunity to purchase various power-ups and skills to aid you in completing the levels. These include mega sizing the slingshot to increase the shot's power, range and height, causing a small earthquake that shakes the structure and occasionally dislodges pieces and pigs, and making the bird being fired to grow bigger and stronger. You are given a set of power-ups to use at the start, however once they are used you have to purchase more if you wish to use them again. One particular power-up - The Mighty Eagle, which is purchased once and afterwards becomes permanently available, also unlocks an entirely new challenge within each level; the goal being to use the power-up to destroy everything in the stage. For each stage this is accomplished in you receive a feather to that you've done so, which also gives incentive to come back and redo levels and have fun obliterating everything within them. With later updates to the game a new way to earn power-ups has become available. Once per day when a level is started a slot machine appears before the level starts and grants you a random power-up that goes straight to your inventory, enabling power-ups to be obtained free of charge, albeit randomly.

Angry Birds also has a tremendous amount of levels. When it was first released there was a single episode containing 3 worlds. Each world has 21 levels, creating a total of 63 levels to play. Since then the game has been repeatedly updated, and now contains 10 episodes and a grand total of 420 levels to complete. In short you won't be done with this game in a single day, or even a single week. This game is packed with content and each level contains a new creative structural layout that's begging to be toppled. The levels do require being completed in order to be able to continue playing an episode. It is however possible to start any episode at any point, regardless of whether the previous episode has been completed. It's possible to complete episode 9 before episode 1 if so wished, but the levels for each do require completing in order however.

The major point however about the characters within the game, as well as the play style is that they're iconic and also memorable. Mario from the Super Mario franchise, Pikachu from Pokémon, Sonic from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. All of them are iconic, as too are the Angry Birds from this game. Being iconic is something that all commercially successful games have managed to do, though it's difficult to completely explain exactly what it is about them that makes them iconic. Perhaps it's how simple the characters actually are, it may be due to the way that they manage to change the general image of the things that they are based off.

Whatever the trick is, it manages to make them so. Of the hundreds of Game franchises on smart phones or not, Games that do that are few and far between. Angry birds is one of those few. It has everything needed in an effective app game, iconic characters and cheery and cartoony setting, packed with content that all uses the same formula but produces new styles each time and incentive to complete each level the best that is possible and compete with others for leaderboard spots. It's the ideal that app game, and truly deserves to be successful.


Profile Information and Angry Birds logo
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Practical Work - Getting Started - The Inspiration and The Initial Idea

So you might remember that on the home page I said that I was hoping for an idea to come to me. Well an idea did come to me, and not that long after properly starting this project.

You see during the summer before I came into Year 13 and began this blog I got really into a game that my brother has on his IPad. The picture to the right is a screenshot of the game in question.

Those of you who are into Android and Smartphone game apps may recognise the game as Candy Crush Saga. A relatively new addition to the vast variety of different game apps that have been released since the Ipod Touch first came out.

This game takes the well-known and often addictive match-three game style and gives it a new colourful twist to make it a new and surprisingly original game, with well over 100 surprisingly difficult levels to clear and only a certain amount of lives to do it in before having to give it a rest and patiently wait for the lives to be replenished.

It's a very simplistic game, recycling a very old and well known playing style, and the levels all involve exactly the same principle to complete them - line candy up to clear the board and shoot for a high score, and yet this game is fast becoming one of the most successful games of its kind, if not the most.

Now I'll just give a little insight into my personal taste in games. I'm into console games full and through, though I do own the Nintendo 3DS as well, and I also don't own any kind of smartphone or equipment that utilizes touch screen technology (3DS excluded). I see android games being played all of the time, normally through passive glances at people with their heads immersed in them, or watching someone else play and sometimes giving what I deem as helpful advice.

I have played smartphone games before, namely the really well known ones like Angry Birds, Temple Run, Subway Surf and Jet-pack Joyride but don't avidly play them to a point where I want to go back and play more of it, or even moreso make me actually want to get a smartphone just to play them. I can however recognise them as being addictive games, although I could never really put my finger on why they were addictive until I started playing Candy Crush and actually started contemplating the question in earnest.

For someone who wants to become a Game Designer, understanding the elements of games that attract people to play them and no less keep playing them is one of the key things that you need to know if you want to make commercially successful games, and now that I have to design the basis for a potentially successful game in order to pass my Media Studies course, I figured let's try and find the answer to that through doing this project; killing two with one stone which is always how I prefer to work.

Now I just told you all of that so that you could get some idea of where my trail of thought and inspiration for this project came from. I want to answer a personal question through doing this course:

"What is it about every commercially successful game out there that has made them as successful as they are?"

To answer that I'm going to start analysing the particularly successful games out of the genre that has fast become infamous for the addictive quality of its games - App Games or Smartphone Games.

And ultimately to this end, through playing Candy Crush and becoming vexed by how such a simple game can be so popular, I intend to ultimately create the prefix for a potential Game app that will hopefully boast the qualities of a successful game.

Now finally we come to the idea itself. There's very little to show at the moment except for the name of the project (also subject to possible change in the future) -

CircuitBoard

There's also this rough plan that I did at the end of one of my classes when I decided to put something down on paper. It's a little insight into what I have in mind so that you can begin speculating.

Right now this is currently all there is. Once I have more ideas and maybe have some research under my belt I'll put up another post that expands on this. It's too early to head off in any particular direction at the moment, but once I have something definite I'll put it up. For now you can guess and speculate, but keep tuned in for more in the future.

Also this post is a means to explain the direction that I'll be taking for this task. As I've already definitely settled on looking into app games as the main focus of my project.

So heres an introduction, and now the work begins. I've got a question to answer.

See you next time!

Candy Crush Imagehttp://correctspellingofskilful.blogspot.co.uk/p/practical-work_14.html

Practical Work - Unity (Scrapped) and Blender

Now it's no lie to say that I have next to no experience when it comes to actual productive game making, or even animation in genral. I'm more of an ideas man, and as such I've come up with countless ideas in the past, but very rarely expanded on them to make them something real. For that reason, between now and my last update in the practical work section, I've been working away from the blog to learn how to use two different computer programs -

Unity - The Game Engine

A version of this software is available free of charge if you're not using it for commercial means or if you're still in education, both of which I currently am. I chose this due to a recommendation from someone I know. I personally haven't used this before but it can support the vast majority of major smartphone OS types, and can also support all of the mainstream home games consoles.

Commercially it's counterpart Unity Pro is available for $1500, and notable popular games that have been created using Unity include Temple Run and Temple Run 2, Slender: The Eight Pages and its sequel Slender: The Arrival, Dead Trigger and also the Bad Piggies update for Angry Birds. As such it holds good ground as an ideal software to work with, and even if I so wanted to I could still use this software commercially to create games if I so chose to in the future. It also has online training in how to use the software and also various projects to create using the softwares available utilities and assets. As such I have the chance to learn everything I need to create the game. In fact I have managed to create a very basic game using one of Unity's online tutorials. It's a game called Roll-a-Ball and it's a good first step for a beginner. I'll see if I can get a link up below to various versions of it that work on either a Windows or Mac system. If not then I'll post a link to the Unity page with the project on to show you what I did, as what I produced is practically identical. -

Unity Project - Roll-a-Ball

This program enables games to be put together using available assets and also has its own scripting program so that you can create the code yourself. As far as assets and materials go, some basics come with the software, others can be imported from the software's asset store. Unity itself can't be used to create materials. 3D Models, textures, music, sound effects and animation all have to be created on external software and then imported in. In my case the main concern is in the modelling aspect, which is why I am also learning how to use the software  -

Blender - The 3D Modelling Software

This software has been around since 1998 and is a very well known and commonly used software by graphic designers to produce 3D shapes. The software is completely free and changeable, and has been used commercially in the media industry since its release. I chose Blender based partly off of recommendation, partly off of my own prior knowledge, and also due to to me finding out that Unity couldn't be used to 3D Model. As such I conducted a search on the best modelling software to use and Blender came at the top of the list. I had also seen it used when I once paid a visit to a video game company, and had also seen it on the laptop of one of my friends.

3D Modelling was an entirely new area for me, and still is. As I said before, I'd never done anything like this in the past, although I have a lot of skill at doing precise drawings and also creating models in real life. Unlike Unity however, I chose to teach myself how to use Blender and also tried to get some practice in at creating objects to prepare myself for the project. My style of creation is to initially draw out or construct the shape in real life to get the measurements and a better idea of how the shape will look. The second step is using the drawing or model as a blueprint to construct the 3D object in Blender itself. Currently I can only construct the shape of the objects. I haven't yet learned how to texture them, but it's still early learning for me

From the front the software looks very complicated, and I'll openly admit that I didn't know where to start with it. The main functions that I did learn through trying it out for the first time; the real basic key functions, were adding shapes into the area and adjusting their position, shape, and rotation. I tested out Blender by using trial and error to create a 3D version of a drawing that I'd done a few days prior. The images shown below show what the drawing was, and how it turned out when put through the blender. Hopefully in the future I can update this with a textured version of this but for now this is what we've got.

So that's what I've been occupying myself with this whole time. These are currently the software I'm learning to use in preparation for the project. On a side note, there is a good chance that I'll update this post as I learn and do more on the project, so keep of this post. You never know, something new may show up. This is however only a post to show preparation and learning of the software. There won't be anything that may appear in the final game on this post. That will be saved for later on.

At the time of originally publishing this post however I can reveal that I have done some work towards it, but the details are a reveal for a later post. I also hope you liked my game analysis posts that I've put up. You can expect more research before I put up the next Practical post, but I can promise that it will cover elements of the main game as its topic.

Till that time keep your windows open!

Update (21/12/13) - Texturing a gem piece to be transparent crystal -

As I stated before I wanted to texture this creation to make it into what I'd imagined it to look like. I realised however that my original work had disappeared, meaning I had to start again. As such I recreated a single gem piece with the intent of texturing it to make it look like a piece of green crystal glass. I did research on texturing within blender to learn how to do so, and the end result was this rather beautiful item rendered on the screen. I have to say I'm pleased with myself.

The following day I took it upon myself to create the remaining shards that made up the centre piece of the medal. I'm a sucker for crystals of different colours and it would give me practice, so I thought why not? I gave a staple texture and transparency setting for all of the shards and then modified the colour to suit the colour on the original drawing. It was more efficient than working out individual texture settings for each one. The picture shows the finished rendition and I must say that I love what has been produced.

Update (1/2/14) - Steady Improvement, and learning to animate -

I couldn't get the animation itself up. I hope these give an idea that the shape was in a rotation animation. I was hoping to get this animated because of the crystals; the light casting through them makes them look different each frame. This is the result of me going through a set of video tutorials on youtube, detailing how to use blender effectively. They're by a youtuber called BornCG, and I learnt the basics of animation along with many other things through watching his videos. They've been a tremendous help in this project of mine.

I'm glad this gave me some practice at it. It's been a warm up to the actual animation I'll be doing. Modelling, texturing, animating, coding, and ultimately putting it all together. I've got to learn each one of these to make the game. Currently I'm confident, although there are no guarantees. It may turn pear shaped yet, but I'm so far pleased with my progress.

Update (20/2/14) - Brief Change - Scrapping Unity, but Pressing ahead with Blender -

This may or may not come as a surprise to you, depending on whether or not you saw the update post I put up but either way, with the change in briefs I've had to also change around the programs I'll be using. Even before the brief change I'd barely touched Unity, but I'd watched tutorials for using Blender, created some of my own 3D meshes, and had practice at animating. I won't deny that this was one of the reasons why I decided to change briefs.

With the goal now being to create a TV advertisement, there's now no need for Unity to be used in my project. Instead my plan is to create a physical level and character inside inside Blender, and use the animation feature to bring it to life and create a video.

As such Unity isn't really important now, although maybe in the future I can properly learn it. It won't a part of this new project though, but I'll still keep the part of this post relating to it up to show the work was done.

I hope my posts are a good read and there'll be more to come in the future. Till that time, stay updated!

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Blender Logo

Game Review - Candy Crush Saga

Candy Crush Saga

Developers: King

Genre: Puzzle

Platforms: Android, IPhone, IPad, Facebook

This was an easy first choice for me. If you want to design an app game, then what better game to start analysing from than the one that inspired me in the first place. That's right; this first review is on Candy Crush Saga. By far and way my favourite out of the menagerie of various app games that I've caught a glance of over people's shoulders.

This game from the front looks very familiar. It's another take on the age old match-three gameplay style seen in games like Bejeweled, and countless others that each bring their own look to the playing style. Candy Crush, at least at the beginning, also fits into this common style. This time around the objects that require lining up are multicoloured pieces of candy, hence the name Candy Crush. The scoring system is implemented into it as well, allowing the chance to aim for high scores and amass some sweet combos (pun fully intended) by clearing candy in a way that doesn't harm your teeth.

Common of a smartphone game, the graphics are simplistic and clean, with a definite turn towards the cute and cartoony. One look at the map for the game is enough to show you that the makers put a lot of consideration into the graphics for the game to make it look amazing. They're also very vibrant and bright, giving an all-round cheerful mood to the game. The candy pieces themselves are a spectrum of rainbow colours very reminiscent of real candy, whose bright mix of colours always catches your eye as you walk past them on display in shop windows, and then makes you want to go and buy them yourself. Clearing the candy from the board also gives you an immense feeling of satisfaction, especially when you manage to inadvertently start a combo of candy alignments, and you find yourself watching as rows of candy disappear from the board with a satisfying poof one after another, and you find your score suddenly becoming double what it originally was.

If however you're lucky enough to find a chance to match a row of 4 pieces of candy or more, or even mange to clear two rows of the same colour candy in a single switch then you'll find that what is left is something that looks a little different from the vibrant technicolor candy pieces that litter the grid, and this is one of the things that makes Candy Crush unique. The match three style implements several additional ways to clear the board of candy by adding bonus candies that can be obtained by doing more than just making a row of three. These candies have various helpful effects such as clearing a whole row/column of candy, or destroying every candy on the board of a single colour, and that's not including the various combos that can be created by combining these bonus candies.

As well as these special candies, the game also implements entirely new sweet based elements as the game progresses, that serve as elements to make the board harder. These include meringue squares, that serve as blockers, but can be destroyed by lining candy up next to it; liquorice cages, which have a candy trapped inside that can only be released by making the caged candy a part of a row of the same colour; and chocolate squares, that work in the same way as meringue but overtime spread and fill more spaces on the grid if left unchecked. The game also makes excellent use of the grid itself to increase the difficulty of the levels, by modifying the grid to make some areas difficult to reach or make rows in, especially when additional stage elements get added into it too.

Unlike a lot of other addictive game apps that use a style of gameplay that involves a single infinite level, with the goal being to survive for as long as possible and try to break other high scores, Candy Crush Saga breaks the mould and goes down the same route that Angry Birds took; using a level/mission format where a stage needs to be completed before progression is possible. Candy Crush Saga at base already has a staggering 155 levels, without counting any updates that came after its release, that require being completed in order. These missions also vary in what is required for their completion, lending itself to a less singular way to play that players could otherwise quickly grow tired of. Classic ideas include obtaining a set amount of points in a certain amount of moves, while others implement a timer without any move restriction. Some new mission types introduced in candy crush incorporate elements from the game itself, involving clearing candy to bring fruit to the bottom and off of the board. Another one that becomes very frequently used in later levels is clearing squares of jelly from the board in a set amount of moves, which can be done by destroying rows of candy over the top of it.

Another similarity that the game shares with other stage based games is a grade system of up to 3 stars, that are awarded depending on how well a level is completed. In Candy Crush the stars are obtained purely based on the amount of points amassed during the level which gives more incentive to come back and revisit levels, so as to win more stars that weren't achieved the first time a level was played. The second incentive to keep playing comes in the form of your score. Being able to compete with friends over who has the highest scores that has practically become a staple for app games now. Candy Crush is no exception to this. The game is able to find other people that you know on Facebook that also play Candy Crush and display their score in a highest to lowest order, and also shows where you place on the leaderboard. This provides additional incentive to keep replaying levels, so that you can get bragging rights on having the highest score out of your friendship group. It's another very satisfying feeling seeing you're name at the top of a leaderboard on a particularly hard level.

In terms of cost Candy Crush is rather sneaky. At the start the game is free to download, which enables you to actually get a good taste of what the game is like, and more often than not become immensely drawn in by this game's incredible addictive quality. Because Candy Crush Saga is a mission based game, which makes failing a level possible, the game incorporates another element; hearts, which you are initially given five of to play the game with. As you play through the game you are bound to fail missions and lose hearts in the process, until eventually you run out completely. When this happens you are rendered unable to keep playing until your hearts return, which takes a considerable amount of time, especially during later levels where it's easier to lose lives. As well as that, once you've reached a certain point in the game, you are rendered unable to continue until you've unlocked the means to access the next part.

In both instances the game presents the a couple of options to getting round the problem. For the unlocking the stages the options are to receive help from three different friends on Facebook which may be easy to do or hard, or by clearing a set of three different quests (missions from past levels that require completing an objective with a high enough score) each of with require an entire day before the next quest can be completed. Regaining hearts also has the option of receiving help from Facebook friends, as well as using Facebook credit if you play the game from Facebook itself. The final option for both of these however is simply to purchase them, at around 70p each, which doesn't seem like much until you find that you start to do it more and more. There is also the option of purchasing special unlockable candy known as boosters, which can be used in the levels you select them for, and can be immensely useful in the harder levels that are difficult to complete normally.

Ultimately Candy Crush manages to get you to give up your money in order to keep playing it, however more often than not the little amounts that you do spend are inconsequential because of what you're spending it on. Match-three games are naturally addictive, and addictive is something that Candy Crush is first and foremost. The lighthearted and bright atmosphere of the game, with its cute and colourful designs keep you in high spirits whilst playing the game, which in turn makes you come back to see more of it. The playing style of Candy Crush is by no means basic, and the levels incorporate loads of cool and clever trick and treats to improve the gameplay and turn the basic match-three playing style into something original and undeniably fun to play. Candy Crush Saga is well deserving of the popularity it has obtained and is a prime example of how app games are designed to be played.

Candy Crush Logo and Profile Information
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